24/06/2009

Ann and Alan Keen may lose home

Ann and Alan Keen, the married couple who are both Labour MPs, may lose their Brentford house following demands from Hounslow Council that they explain why it is unoccupied.

Ann Keen, MP for Brentford and Isleworth.

The Brentford property, according to the council, has boarded-up windows and paint splashed over the inside of the upstairs windows. Certainly sounds uninhabited to me - and a source from the council says it's been that way for seven months, according to the BBC, who also say that the couple have thus far declined to comment. Either that or they're using it as a crack den.

Alan Keen, MP for Feltham and Heston.

Interestingly, this is the house the couple have declared to be their main residence, which entitles them to claim expenses to cover the costs of maintaining another property that they have designated as their official second home, closer to Parliament. The Keens were amongst the first people to be named in the controversy surrounding the expenses scandal due to the fact that their main residence is just ten miles from the Commons, yet as it falls outside of the area deemed by Parliament to be close enough to Westminster to make a second home unecessary, they are nevertheless entitled to claim for its upkeep; this being used to demonstrate that even those MPs who have not broken the rules may still not have acted morally. If they are shown to indeed not be spending any time at the Brentford house, this could well be one of the most blatant examples of expenses abuse so far.

Darren, keen on getting a roof over his head before the winter.

The council says that it has written to them and explained that urgent action is required in explaining their circumstances, but it is believed that they have not yet responded. If they continue not to do so, the property may become subject to the Empty Dwelling Management Order law, by which it can be repossessed and put to a better use.

How many homeless people do you think are going to be sleeping on London's streets tonight? It seems obvious that the Keens don't care, or they wouldn't let a house go to waste.

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